Sherlock Girl - Bloodlines
by SarianaJ
Summary: You've met Sophia before, this is her second 'series'. 4 years after Sophia moved to London, she is taken from 221c in the middle of the night. The occupants of Baker Street, present and former, spend a week trying to get her back. On that seventh day, they catch up and this story begins. Warning: It does get dark in places, hence the T rating.
1. Chapter 1

A/N:

Okay, this occurs 4 years after the first Sherlock Girl story, by which point Sophia is an experienced Consulting detective. Sherlock has been back for 3 years now (if I have my own timeline straight, do you have any idea what series 3 did to it?!) and Sophia frequently works cases with him. Eve briefly moved into 221C, but moved out a few months prior to this story after being offered a job at NCIS.  
>Other notes: John and Mary are married, they married approximately a year ago and their daughter is named Isabella. that is better explained in another short story that should be uploaded in the next few days, but Mary and Isabella won't make an appearance just yet.<p>

Anyway, enjoy the story and try to wrap your brain around the plot twist.  
>I NEED TO KNOW HOW YOU TAKE THIS PLOT TWIST! PLEASE COMMENT! ITS CRUCIAL!<p>

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><p>"You haven't been told yet" he asked the teen incredulously. He stood over her and shook his head in disgust. "The elder Holmes learned about this months ago, I thought he would have told you by now"<p>

Sophia frowned. _If Mycroft knew why wouldn't he tell me? I wonder if he told John and asked him to keep it a secret..._  
>"What hasn't Mycroft told me?" she asked, keeping her voice quiet so he wouldn't hear it change with fear.<p>

"You're the prodigy. You're the end of the Midnight line."

"I still don't understand" Sophia replied.

"Your DNA is a combination of the three..." her captor cut off and she was pulled to her feet. She felt cold metal placed against her throat as the front door was knocked off it's hinges.

Lestrade walked in first, followed by Donovan and other uniformed officers. Sherlock Holmes followed Lestrade, John Watson bumping into him as the consulting detective froze at the sight of the knife.

"Let her go" Lestrade ordered, fighting to keep his voice level.

"I don't think so, I want to walk out of here. If I let her go you'll shoot me the second you get the chance."

"I'll shoot you if you don't" Sherlock told him. Sophia shook her head as the blade was pressed closer to her throat, looking pleadingly in the consulting detective's direction. Sherlock lowered the gun, letting it hang uselessly by his side.

Sophia's captor twisted her around to face Lestrade. Sophia watched the DI's face change from one of control to anger, then horror as she felt the point of the blade break through her skin. She noticed movement out of the corner of her eye as John pulled the gun out of Sherlock's hand. Sherlock raised his eyebrows and shook his head, and John glared at him as if to say _you think I would do it if I thought I'd miss_.

Sherlock trusted John, whose marksmanship didn't fail. The gun sounded and Sophia's captor turned, not fast enough for him to dodge the bullet that impacted the hand holding the knife to Sophia's throat. The hand recoiled and dropped the knife, causing Lestrade to run forward and grab Sophia from her captor's grasp and hand her over to Sherlock, before the DI floored the kidnapper.

The consulting detective caught the teen before she fell and began to remove the electrical cable from her bound wrists. Sophia pulled her arms apart as soon as she could and threw them around Sherlock.

The consulting detective coughed uncomfortably and muttered "it was John that took the shot", so the teen released him and turned to John. Sophia grinned at the doctor and pulled him into a tight hug, her "thank you" almost lost in his jumper. John returned the hug, just happy that she was safe again after she had been taken a week ago.

Sophia pulled away, tears flowing freely down her cheeks and joining the blood pooling at the neckline of her shirt. John put a hand on her shoulder and walked her out of the empty apartment, towards an ambulance waiting outside the building.

Sophia sat patiently as the medical staff flitted around her, always checking that the ex-army doctor and the consulting detective were never too far away. Both men walked back over as the medical staff went to look at Sophia's kidnapper, whose hand was bleeding profusely from the bullet wound. She looked up at them expectantly, waiting for them to complain about making it so easy for them to take her or something like that, so she was surprised when the consulting detective asked

"Are you alright?"

Sophia blinked at him for a few seconds before shrugging her shoulders.

"Fine, I guess. Though I sense this is going to hurt for a while" she answered, self-consciously rubbing her neck.

"I meant mentally" Sherlock said.

"I don't have an answer for that yet, I'm waiting for my brain to realise that I'm safe again and out of the hands of that maniac." she lied. The truth was, she wasn't alright mentally. What that maniac had told her had scared her, but she didn't want to admit it.

"No you're not. What's on your mind?" John stated more than asked. Sophia sighed, knowing she had to tell them sooner or later.

"I'll tell you back at Baker Street. I can't tell you here" she told him. Sophia stood and walked with them to a waiting taxi.

"Where are you going?" Greg shouted to the trio as they were about to get in the taxi.

"Back to Baker Street" Sherlock answered, pulling the taxi door closed behind him. Lestrade sighed as he watched the taxi drive away, losing sight of it as the forensics truck arrived.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

Two hours later Lestrade knocked on the front door of 221B, frowning as he heard raised voices from inside.

"And you didn't tell us this WHY?!" Sherlock was asking. The reply wasn't audible, but Sherlock's was.

"Because you didn't think it was important!" he shouted. It was followed by a snarl of rage and a crashing sound, which sounded suspiciously like a mug smashing against a wall. There were footsteps and the door was opened by Sophia.

"Enter at your own risk. We're all very pissed off at Mycroft and Sherlock is venting it by throwing things." she told them as they followed her up the stairs.

"Who the hell is it now?!" John shouted. Lestrade felt his eyebrows try to meet his hair. _John shouting._ That wasn't normal, meaning that he was past very pissed off.

"It's Lestrade" Sophia shouted back. She ducked as the door opened and an object flew towards the DI. Her hand moved out quickly and she caught Sherlock's skull just before it hit Lestrade in the face.

"Sherlock, focus your efforts on your brother, not the detective inspector. After all, no-one deserves having your skull thrown at them like Mycroft." Sophia told the consulting detective, placing the skull back in his outstretched hand and glaring at the man in question.

Mycroft Holmes was standing by the fireplace, nonchalantly contemplating the teen who was glaring at him with murder in her eyes.

"I wasn't going to tell you." he told her.

"Are you serious?" Lestrade turned to find the person behind the voice, only to find Eve on a computer screen on the coffee table in front of him. "You honestly weren't ever going to tell her that she's related to John, Sherlock and you."

"Yes" Mycroft replied, making Eve gawp at him.

"What did you just say Eve?" Lestrade asked the computer screen. Eve stopped gawping at the sound of the DI's voice, then she started to explain.

"Sophia is..." Eve cut off and muttered a quiet expletive as another voice became audible shouting her name. Sophia watched in dismay as Eve quickly shut her laptop, ending the Skype call. Lestrade turned to Mycroft.

"What was she about to say Mycroft?" he asked. It was John that answered

"Sophia was taken by the man you have in custody for her DNA. According to him and Mycroft, the Midnight family has managed to hop it's way through the Holmes genetic line, the Watson genetic line and at some point the Moriarty genetic line. This has come to a climax with her, apparently the last in the Midnight line due to several accidents and random killings."

"The man you have in custody took Sophia in order to make her disappear, so that she could change her surname and continue the Moriarty line." Sherlock finished. Lestrade stared at the girl in question, who was toying with her necklace absentmindedly.

"Remind me not to tell Sally" he muttered to himself.

"Sally Donovan already knows, she's the one who wanted the information in the first place." Mycroft told him.

"Are you saying that, after she first met me almost a four years ago, she went looking for my family history and found this?" Sophia's voice full of disbelief and mistrust.

"Yes. I am." the elder Holmes replied.

Sophia stared into space, leaving Lestrade stunned at the teen's change of mood. John frowned at the teen, that's when he noticed her hands.

Sophia, like Sherlock, had a type of Mind Palace which consists of her staring into space. What separates her from Sherlock is the fact that she moves her hands as if she has the information on screens in front of her, she slides the data backwards and forwards across the imaginary screen as she thinks. John watched as the theory formed, causing the teen to snap her head up.

"That's why" she muttered. "Donovan automatically called Eve a psychopath, but not me." she explained to the confused occupants if the room. She spun round dramatically as her laptop beeped, announcing Skype had started back up.

"Eve, just in time" she said to it before the young woman at the other end had even opened her mouth.  
>"Donovan constantly insisted that you were a psychopath, correct."<p>

"Yeah, so?"

"What else did she call you?"

"She called me one of Sherlock's minions, as if there had been another..."

Eve stopped talking and grinned at the screen, catching her friend's train of thought. Eve disappeared from the screen and Sophia watched as keys could be heard, waiting for her friend to re-appear. She didn't have to wait long. Eve's red hair became visible at the edge if the screen first, followed by the laser glare aimed at the older Holmes brother. Sherlock released his rather savage growl at the sight of Eve's laser glare, automatically knowing Mycroft had hidden something else.

"What now little brother?" Mycroft asked, rolling his eyes.

"What else have you been hiding Mycroft?" Sherlock demanded through gritted teeth.

"That Eve's genetic line runs parallel ours Sherlock" Mycroft replied nonchalantly.

"And you didn't think that was important information!" Eve and Sophia shrieked as one.


	2. Chapter 2

Sherlock contemplated the teen sitting on the doorstep as the taxi pulled up at Baker Street.

At first he wondered why she was there, she had a key and Mrs Hudson was in if she had left hers in her own apartment, and Eve had taught her how to pick locks so she could certainly get in. So why was she sitting on the doorstep?

Sherlock's question was answered when she pulled her hand away from her side to wave at the taxi. He heard John gasp at the sight of the teen's hand, before the doctor wrenched the door open and ran to her side.

Sherlock's eyes were focused on the teen's hand however and the blood it was covered with. His eyes started scanning the floor as he got out of the taxi, searching for the trail...

"Sherlock" John shouted, causing the detective to come out of his thoughts. Sherlock walked over to John, recognising the fear in his friend's voice.

Sherlock's eyes met John's and Sherlock pulled his phone out of his pocket and phoned for an ambulance. Normally John would have sorted it, but there was too much blood on the teen's hand, and so much fear in John's eyes, that told Sherlock this one couldn't be handled here.

"About five minutes before it gets here" Sherlock told John as he placed his phone back in his pocket.

"What happened Soph?" John asked the teen, who chuckled lightly in response.

"Remember the spy Moriarty's group had watching us after his death" John nodded, frowning at the lack of explanation. "He thought he could finish the job four grown men couldn't" she chuckled again and prised her coat open.

Sherlock's eyes widened as she revealed the t-shirt underneath. It had been pink this morning, now most of it was stained red from the blood seeping out of the wound in her abdomen. Sherlock's quicksilver eyes scanned the dyed material until it found the rip and the wound.

His mind set to work as he found the small tear. Just large enough for it not to be on a Swiss army knife, but small enough for it to be easily concealed. Conclusion: a pen-knife of some sort that could be easily dropped after the attack.

Sophia chuckled shakily as she saw Sherlock starting to scan the floor. She dove into the pocket of her coat and pulled a blood-covered switchblade out of her pocket, placing it in the detective's open hand and leaning against John who was sat down on the step next to her.

"How long have you been sitting here?" John asked. Sophia looked raised her bloodied hands with her fingers spread, showing them to John and Sherlock.

Ten minutes.

John caught Sophia and held her upright as she began to fall forward. Sherlock hailed the taxi that was driving behind the ambulance, John handing Sophia over and frowning as he saw Sherlock get into the taxi. Sherlock held the door open and John got in.

"Scotland Yard" Sherlock told the driver.

"What about Sophia?" John asked, glaring as Sherlock ignored him. John nodded as Sherlock held up the switchblade, clearly intending to get it processed by Molly.

"Besides, she'll be in surgery for the next hour at least" Sherlock stated, his gaze shifting to the window, watching London go past.

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

"What is that?" Molly asked as Sherlock handed her the weapon. The consulting detective waved his hand dismissively.

"I'll explain later" John said to the confused Molly, "We just need fingerprints"

"Who have you used that on freak?" Sally Donovan asked as she entered the room, nodding to the knife in Molly's hand. John glared angrily at Donovan, about to speak when Sherlock interrupted.

"I have not injured anyone today, it is Sophia that is the injured one" Sherlock told Sally, who snorted derisively in response.

"So the mini-freak got knifed" she muttered, "Probably your fault anyway"

John snarled and Sally's eyes widened as she realised she's annoyed the army doctor. Sherlock raised his eyebrows at John and frowned, his frown deepening as Sally laughed at John.

That's when John snapped.

"How could it be Sherlock's fault?" the ex-army doctor started. Sherlock smirked despite the situation when he recognised his friends' tone, the one he used when talking to Anderson, the one he used to pull people apart.

"After all, Sherlock and I spent the past week working with Eve and Phee and most of the kidnapping division to get her back. You got the week off, but you always kept an eye on the investigation and gave the information to Mycroft, who gave you money in exchange"

"Nicely noticed" Sherlock interrupted, before taking over.  
>"If it's anyone's fault Sophia's hurt it's yours. You chose to become Mycroft's spy. That information got leaked to the remains of Moriarty's lackeys, so if she dies. It's on you"<p>

Sherlock looked to Molly and nodded as she began to gather evidence from the switchblade, then turned on his heel and walked out of the lab doors, his coat billowing out behind him. John followed, leaving a stunned Donovan and a working Molly behind them.

The two men shared a victorious grin as they climbed into a taxi outside Scotland Yard.

"Did you enjoy that?" Sherlock asked as the taxi moved towards the hospital. John turned to him with a huge grin and nodded.

"I can see why you enjoy that, the look on her face was priceless." John's grin got wider as he spoke.

"You should join me in doing that more often, she really didn't expect it from you"

"Which makes it all the more hilarious" John agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: The chapter in which the darkness/violence sort of begins. Also, not all of the characters here belong to me. someone on dA owns Ophelia, not me I forgot to mention it in the previous chapter. She is Mycroft's daughter.**

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><p>Sophia frowned at the package sat on the edge of the bed she was restricted to. The countless postmarks and security stamps told her it had been imported, it was something bizarre judging by the amount of times it has been checked by customs, as shown by the seven different stamps on the box.<p>

She reached for it, ignoring the pain in her midsection as she moved. She managed to hook one finger onto the corner of the box and used it to pull the box closer. She ripped it open without a second thought, knowing it wasn't likely to be something that could kill her if it had passed all the customs checks.

She smiled at the sight of the bright pink wrapping paper around a second box. She pulled the second box out and threw the brown box onto the seat that John had vacated twenty minutes ago.

She grinned even wider as she ripped the pink paper off the box, then ripped the box open. She let out a delighted laugh when she saw the two stuffed toys, laughing at the inside joke the box held.

Inside the box there was a medium brown bear wearing a beige jumper and a raven the same size wearing a blue scarf. She pulled them out of the box as she released a squeak which she had been trying to hide, making the two men outside turn and look through the window at her.

They both walked in the room as Sophia squeaked again, she noticed them share a smile at the squeak, then they turned to her and frowned. She held up the two stuffed toys, laughing even harder at the men's confused faces.

"Inside joke" she explained when she stopped laughing several minutes later. They both frowned at her; not quite understanding why two toys were so funny.

Sherlock's eyes widened as he noticed the jumper on the teddy bear, then he looked bear to his friend and grinned. Sophia beamed, realising Sherlock had understood half the joke, and held up the raven so he could see it better.

"I understand the bear, but why am I a raven?" he asked Sophia.

John smirked and muttered "that would be my fault" making Sherlock turn to his friend.

"He once compared you to a raven, always watching over your shoulder, always warning you of danger excetera..." Sophia explained, waving the raven in the air dismissively.

~:~:~:~Timeskip~:~:~:~

Sophia picked up the phone as it began to ring.

"I wondered when I would receive a call from you"

"Oh thank god you answered. Are you okay Soph?" Sophia laughed at Eve's panicked tone.

"I'm fine Eve. Don't panic" she replied, "I thought you were coming back to London, where are you?"

Sophia looked up as there was a knock at the door, still listening to Eve try to walk through a crowd. Sophia heard Eve shout "I'm on the way to Baker street" as she pulled open the door. Sophia's phone dropped on the floor as she backed away from her father walking through the door.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, twisting her around so he was holding it behind her back.

"Good to see you again brat" he said as he pushed her out of the room. Sophia's mind was whirring as he pushed her up the stairs, working out where everyone was.

Mrs Hudson was downstairs in the cafe, Eve was on her way and Sherlock and John... She heard John shouting "What do you mean you lost him?!" as she climbed the final stair. She saw her father grin out of the corner of her eye as she was pushed through the door.

"Were you looking for me?" he asked innocently.

"Never mind Mycroft" John muttered as he saw them in the doorway, "we know where he is".

John dropped his phone and reached for his gun, only to find it already in Sherlock's hand. Sophia's eyes widened and she shook her head, biting her lip to stop herself crying out in pain as her father twisted her wrist behind her back.

William smirked down at his daughter as he released her wrist. She tried to run towards Sherlock and John but he grabbed hold of the back of her jumper.

"I wouldn't shoot me if I were you Mr Holmes" William said as he placed his own gun on Sophia's temple.

"Not unless you want to lose your precious little protege anyway" he explained with a cruel smirk.

"Have you forgotten that she's your daughter?" John asked as he looked between the terrified Sophia and her perfectly calm and psychotic father, noting all of the similarities between them.

"He's already proved that he doesn't care about that John" Sherlock said, drawing John's attention. Sophia's and Sherlock's eyes met as they shared the same terrifying memory of a week ago.

William Midnight chuckled as he saw this and both of them snapped out of their memories in time for the front door to be opened.

"Sophia!" a voice shouted and Sophia cringed as she recognised it. Eve was here.

"Who's that Sophia?" William asked, placing his hand on her shoulder and pulling her closer to him, the gun staying exactly where it was.

"Just a friend dad" Sophia replied. She bit her lip again as he dug his fingers into her shoulder like a claw.

"Why don't you invite her to join us?" he asked. Sophia shook her head and her father pressed the gun closer to her head. Sophia panicked and took a deep breath.

"Up here Eve" she shouted, not quite managing to hide all the fear in her voice. Eve reached for her gun as she found Sophia's phone by the door of 221C and had just walked up the stairs as she heard Sophia's shout.

"Put the gun down Eve" William ordered as Eve walked through the door aiming directly at his head. He chuckled when she didn't and he turned, showing Eve her terrified friend at gunpoint. Eve could sense the fear coming from Sophia, but also the madness and rage coming from William.

Eve sighed and placed the gun on the ground, walking past to stand by Sherlock.

"You sounded rather shocked on the phone Sherlock, are you ever going to speak?" the psychopath asked. Sophia blinked rapidly as her father used her as a support while he leaned over to pick up Eve's gun and Sherlock gripped the gun so tightly his knuckles went White.

"Not before he kills you" Eve stated as she watched Sophia's face for any sign of a code. Sophia's rapid blinking threw Eve off for a moment, until she recognised their silent communication.

Eve backed slowly away from Sophia and her father until she stopped in front of the desk and felt the scientific experiment on it, Sherlock watching discreetly as Eve disconnected the mass of tubes to hold the tube of acid.

"What a shame, we had such a good game Sherlock" William mused. Sophia squeezed her eyes shut as her father pressed the gun even closer to her head.

"Well I'm going to end it" Eve said. She pulled the corked tube full of acid out from behind her back and threw it across the room, William looking in Eve's direction just in time to see it. Sophia pulled herself out of her father's grip and ran forward as the cork became eroded by the acid and fell out, coating her father in acid.

Sherlock fired and William dropped his gun as his shoulder began to bleed. The front door burst open downstairs and Mycroft's minions ran up the stairs and grabbed William Midnight, hauling him off the floor and out of the flat.

Sophia crouched by the sofa and began to sob, her fear finally overwhelming her. Sherlock shocked the occupants of the room by placing John's gun on the desk by the dismantled experiment and sitting on the floor beside Sophia, pulling her into a hug and letting him sob into his shirt.

Mycroft walked in and handed Eve her gun back, Eve took it and continued to stare wide-eyed at Sherlock. Mycroft turned to see what Eve was looking at and paused at the sight of his younger brother actually making physical contact with someone, never mind letting her cry into his shirt.

"Don't all look so shocked" Sherlock muttered.

"I've only ever seen Ophelia hug you, I think I'm allowed to be shocked little brother" Mycroft replied.

"You hate physical contact, but you hugged her" Eve muttered, coming to sit down next to them. John looked down at the group sat on the floor in front of him, then up to Mycroft, looking at the elder Holmes's confused expression.

"When did you talk to him Sherlock?" Eve asked as Sophia's sobbing began to quieten.

"About a week ago" Sophia muttered, turning to face Eve with puffy eyes. She kept her arms wrapped around Sherlock's chest though and Sherlock smiled before he turned to Eve, becoming serious.

"Judging by the look the two of you shared earlier I presume you didn't tell me for a reason" John stated and Sherlock nodded.

"I didn't want you to worry any more than you already were, your mood was already foul enough" Sherlock explained, taking a deep breath before he continued.

"He phoned just after you left for work, giving me a riddle to answer. I answered and he gave me another, for about an hour this went on until a door opened" Sherlock paused again as Sophia hugged him tighter, he put his arm around her and she rested her head on his shoulder, then Sherlock continued.

"He threatened to kill her if I didn't answer his final riddle"

"What crosses three paths and creates it's own? Halting three wars with one final end" Sophia quoted the riddle she'd grown up trying to answer.

Sherlock nodded and smirked as he thought that she'd remembered it. iThen again, if you were almost choked to death by your father waiting for someone to answer it you'd remember it too/i

Mycroft's phone rang, snapping Sherlock out of his thoughts. Mycroft frowned, nodding in understanding as he answered it.

"I have to go" he told them as he went to walk out of the door. He looked back slightly guiltily at Sophia and said "Don't expect your father to return to bother you again". Sophia snorted and muttered into Sherlock's shoulder "the selfish bastard deserves it". Mycroft nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Sherlock to look at Sophia as she pulled herself onto the sofa.

"Are you sure that he deserves what Mycroft will do to him?" he asked.

"Yes. He is the reason my mother left, he is the reason..." Sophia tailed off, getting to her feet and walking to the door. She retrieved her phone from the doorway of 221C and returned, sending a quick text to Mycroft as she sat next to John.

i'Tell him thank you for me Mycroft. He's the reason I'm here  
>-SM.'i

"Are you going to finish your sentence?" Eve asked.

"He's the reason I'm here" she answered. John smiled sadly as Sophia leaned against him, watching as Sherlock and Eve nodded. Sophia yawned and snuggled into John's side, he put his arm around her as she began to breath deeply, indicating that she'd fallen asleep.

"It took thirty-six hours without sleep and twenty minutes of sheer terror for her to drop" Sherlock muttered, getting to his feet as gracefully as he could and grabbing the blanket off the back of John's armchair. He threw it over Sophia and John raised one eyebrow questioningly.

"Why are you acting like this?" Eve whispered to the consulting detective.

"Like what?"

"Like you're human" John answered. Sophia shifted in her sleep and mumbled "Shh teddy, I'm sleeping", sending Eve into silent hysterics.

"I am human John" Sherlock replied, not able to stop a massive grin spreading across his face. His grin became a fond smile as he tucked the blanket around Sophia.

"I care about my family, most of it anyway, and Sophia is family. We both knew that from the moment we met her" John nodded when Sherlock stopped speaking, noticing Eve was staring at him like he was an alien.

"Where's the real Sherlock Holmes?" she asked. The question itself was a bizarre and generally humorous one, but Eve's tone and her facial expression told Sherlock she was completely serious. Sherlock chuckled.

"Don't worry Eve, I'll probably be back to my normal self tomorrow. I thought you'd try to take advantage of i-" Sherlock was cut off as Eve walked over and hugged the consulting detective, so tight she almost stopped him breathing. He patted her on the head and she released him, standing back with a grin to rival the cheshire cat spread across her features.

John just rolled his eyes at Sherlock and the consulting detective shrugged. He pointed to Eve, then downstairs.

"Why?" Eve asked.  
>"I need you to open the doors while I-"<br>"No, she's okay here Sherlock" John interrupted. Sherlock was about to ask why when there was a knock at the door. Everyone listened as Mrs Hudson walked out of 221A to open it. Eve ran to the top of the stairs and silenced Lestrade as he climbed the stairs. Lestrade frowned at Eve but stayed quiet, following the 20 year old into 221B.

"Are you caring?" Lestrade asked the consulting detective, who was currently placing another blanket over Sophia as she slept. John nodded for Sherlock and shifted slightly, causing Sophia to mutter in her sleep again.

Eve leaned on Lestrade for support as her sensitive ears picked up what Sophia said, causing her to go into silent hysterics. Lestrade's eyebrows rose as he saw Sherlock shaking with hidden laughter, Eve pushed Lestrade out of the way as Sherlock walked out of the room, his deep laugh echoing through 221.

"Why are you here Lestrade?" Sherlock asked as he re-entered the room, now finished laughing at Sophia's mumble that Lestrade hadn't heard.

"I have a case for you all" Lestrade answered, "I thought it would help Sophia get her confidence back, get her back to normal"

"Is it an urgent one?" John asked quietly. Lestrade shook his head.

"A cold case full of bizarre number lists, one the cryptography lot couldn't work out" Lestrade frowned at the question. "Why?"

"She hasn't had any sleep for the past 36 hours and she's just been held at gunpoint by her own father. She needs sleep" Eve answered nonchalantly.

"You're peeved" John said.  
>"And you're stating the obvious" Eve snapped, only just managing to keep her voice quiet. The two of them began to glare at each other, but Sherlock stepped in between them as Sophia began to mutter something in her sleep that even Eve couldn't pick up.<p>

The consulting detective froze mid-step as he understood the teen's mumbling, his eyes widening in realisation.

"Sherlock?" John said as the consulting detective stared into space.

"Of course. It makes so much sense now" Sherlock muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

"What? What makes sense?" Lestrade asked. Sherlock turned on his heel and began to pace, muttering to himself. He stopped pacing after a few minutes and pointed to Sophia.

"She's the answer" he told them, believing that was enough explanation.

Across London, Mycroft was saying the same thing to William Midnight.

"Your hired gun even worked it out and told her, the one you didn't get the chance to kill that is." the elder Holmes brother explained. William shook his head.

"Thats not possible, the Midnight who can answer the riddle IS the answer. Sophia couldn't solve it, so she isn't the heir to the fortune" he protested, continuing to shake his head.

"So that's what this is all about, some sort of family fortune passed down through the ages. The Holmes's have always wondered what this little puzzle is about and have tried to solve it" William stuttered at Mycroft's words, more confused than he'd been all day. "Your family is an odd one, the genius is passed down through the women, which is why you don't have the same abilities as your wife and daughter, who you tried to kill today. We've alway known the Midnight line was connected to ours somehow, the power of deduction gave it away, but we never worked out what the riddle was for."

Mycroft stood up and began to pace around the small grey room, sliding a folder onto the table as he went. William opened it, finding it full of blueprints and a family tree.

"Are you planning to kill me so I can't pass this information on?" William asked, not quite able to keep the confusion out of his voice. Mycroft chuckled behind him and he almost jumped out of the chair.

"No, I'm showing you proof that you're related and making sure you acknowledge it. That way you can explain why you've been confined to Holmes House, there are plenty of spare rooms for another homicidal relation." Mycroft explained as William Midnight was taken out of the room.

Mycroft retrieved his umbrella from where it was leaning against the table and picked the file back up again, handing it to one of his minions to deal with while he went to inform the occupants if Baker Street of William's fate.

Mycroft knocked on the door of 221 Baker street over two hours later, a folder of research on the Midnight family fortune in one hand and his umbrella in the other. Sherlock opened the door with his finger over his lips and Mycroft quirked an eyebrow in silent question.

"Sophia's asleep and we think it's best we keep her that way, so we need to be quiet." Sherlock explained in whisper. The consulting detective closed the door behind Mycroft carefully, but they talked outside the door to 221B instead of going in.

Sherlock took the file from Mycroft and began to frown as he looked through it.

"The answer to the riddle he gave you leads to this, I know for a fact that you solved it by now" Mycroft waited for his younger brother to nod before he continued. "I also came back to tell you Mr Midnight's fate."

"And..." Sherlock enquired.

"He's been confined to Holmes house and it's grounds while they find a more permanent place to house him."

"Why not just leave him there? The Holmes's will deal with him appropriately"

"What do you mean?" Eve questioned, pulling the door open. She had heard wild stories about Christmas dinner parties and realised that any family linked to Sherlock wouldn't be normal, not to everyone's standards anyway.

"The Holmes family may be bizarre and borderline insane, but it has it's standards" Mycroft replied, sighing as Eve looked at him still confused.

"They may have shooting matches at christmas parties at the sound of a name, but there are lines that you generally don't cross." John whispered to explain further.

"Like trying to kill your children" Eve offered hesitantly and the Holmes brothers nodded. Lestrade turned in John's armchair to look up at Mycroft.

"Are you covering up this body so I don't have to?" he asked and Mycroft nodded. Lestrade smiled and turned back to the news on mute on the TV, frowning as he felt something move in his pocket. He pulled it out and held it above his head for Sherlock to take it.

Sherlock's curiosity got the better of him and he took the small packet out of Lestrade's hand, opening it and emptying the contents into the palm of his hand. He examined the object carefully, noting that it was created in the late 1800s, as shown by the rather elegant Victorian design created in metal and bejewelled in his hand.

He closed his eyes as he tried to remember where he'd seen that design before. Mycroft wandered over and took the pendant out of Sherlock's hand, allowing it to fall and revealing the design to John and Eve.

Eve tilted her head to one side when she saw it, her interest piqued, before walking closer to Mycroft and holding her hand beneath the pendant so she could see the design better.

"I found it in one of the empty apartments a few weeks ago, it's been sat in my office since then waiting for me to remember to give it to you." Lestrade muttered absently. Mycroft dropped it onto Eve's hand and walked out of the room.

"He's still hiding something" Sherlock said as the front door closed behind Mycroft.

"I'll see if I can find out at some point, but at the moment this is bugging me. Think I've seen it before but I can't remember where." Eve handed it back to Sherlock as she spoke, beginning to pace like the consulting detective usually does.

John motioned for Sherlock to hand the pendant over and Sherlock obliged, joining Eve pacing across the room, from John to the doorway and back.

"You might have if you've seen pictures of her family Eve." John told the room and everyone turned to him.

"When have you ever seen a picture of her family?" Lestrade questioned, curious.

"When she was first moving in. The photograph fell out of one of the boxes I helped her move, her mother was wearing it." John explained, holding it out as Sherlock crossed the room to take it from him.

"But Sophia's mother left with most of her jewellery, how could she have got her hands on it?" Eve asked as she looked at the item in question in Sherlock's hand.

"She didn't have it. It was in the pocket of one of the dead guys in an empty apartment we traced her to, I've been waiting to ask her what it is." Lestrade repeated his earlier statement.

"It's the marker." Sherlock stated, a wide grin on his face and his eyes full of interest as he worked it out. Everyone looked at him with questioningly raised eyebrows and he sighed and looked to the ceiling in exasperation.

"It marks her out as an only child in the Midnight family, therefore possibly the answer to the riddle. She's already told us her mother was an only child and we know she definitely is. That only leaves the question of how it got from her mother to a dead guy's pocket." Sherlock explained to them all, leaving Lestrade stunned. Eve and John understood though and nodded, leaving a silence to spread over the room again as they all realised how William Midnight's hired gun could have got his hands on the pendant.

"I'll say it if no-one else will." Eve offered, but it was Lestrade who said "The dead guy probably got it from Sophia's dad, who got it off Sophia's mother. Who coincidentally dropped of the face of the earth several months after she left home."

Sophia stirred and everyone fell silent, she yawned and stretched her arms, realising she was still on the sofa when she almost hit John in the face.

"Sorry" she mumbled as she sat up, leaning back as everyone turned to her.

"What's making you all stare at me?" She looked around each person with one raised eyebrow until Sherlock walked forward, dropping the pendant into her hand. She frowned at it for a moment, then her eyes blew wide and she stared at it in shock.

"How did you get this?" She held the pendant up to the light. "The last time I saw this was when my mother was wearing it, she didn't leave it behind when she left, or if she did it was well hidden" she muttered to herself.

"It was found in the jacket pocket of one of your father's dead workers. It's been sat on my desk waiting for me to give it to you and ask what it is" Lestrade answered, looking rather embarrassed but curious.

"I thought Sherlock just worked that out." Sophia replied and John chuckled lightly as Lestrade looked confused.

"I forgot about that." Eve muttered, smiling slightly. Sherlock walked over to his chair and dropped into it, steepling his fingers as he observed Sophia. She shifted over for Eve to sit next to her and Sherlock began to think, ignoring the idle chatter.

"There's something else too. You seem resigned and determined to do something, what is it?" Sherlock asked after a few minutes of observation. Sophia nodded as she unclasped the pendant and fastened it behind her neck.

"I need to go home. That's where the answers are, Mycroft isn't going to give them to me without a fight so I'll go find the family tree in the attic and get them myself." Sherlock raised his eyebrows at this announcement.

"Not alone." John stated and Sophia shook her head.

"No, but not with you or Sherlock either." she told him, trying to ignore the rather worried look he gave her. "I know Ophelia and her friends are free for the next few weeks, I was going to ask if they'd come with me."

"Why can't I come with you?" Eve asked, pouting.

"Because you did exactly what I did, moved here and never looked back. You'll run into your parents if you come, which I know you don't want to." Eve nodded and Sherlock smirked at them.

Sophia's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket, flipping it open and beginning to speak as she got to her feet and walked out if the room.

"Mycroft's better than we give him credit for" John muttered and Sherlock looked to him. He was holding a set of keys, so Sherlock opened his hands so John would throw them to him. Sherlock examined the keys with interest, lost to his thoughts for several minutes, until Sophia came back in announcing that Ophelia and her friends would go with her before she ran back out if the room. The next day was spent making plans, explaining things and, in some rare occasions, making excuses.

Mycroft wasn't happy about the whole thing of course; but when Sophia told him he had to hand over the information about her family if he cancelled the trip he backed away and told them to go ahead. Later that day he booked them all train tickets and the group of teenagers left for Midnight house a day later, Sherlock only just remembering to hand over the keys from Mycroft.


	4. Chapter 4

"You grew up here?!" Joey squeaked, looking at the large house in amazement.

"Don't look too closely, the place isn't that fantastic" Sophia told them as she walked over to the door. She paused with the key in the lock, but took a deep breath and turned the key.

"I'll honestly say I'm surprised, he knows how to clean." Sophia muttered to herself as she walked into the house. There were no pile of rubbish like she had expected to be littering the floor, fairly clean floors revealing the wooden panels beneath the small section of carpet that acted as a runner for everyone to clean their feet on.

"You grew up here?!" Joey repeated, staring at the room around her in awe.

"This place is going to be a clean version of Holmes House isn't it?" Ophelia inquired. Sophia turned to her with a frown.

"What do you mean?"

"Its going to look grand but hide some serious secrets and skeletons." Ophelia answered and Sophia chuckled.

"Probably." Sophia replied, wandering through a nearby set of double doors.

As it turns out, Ophelia had hit the nail on the head by comparing the Midnight place to Holmes House. The decor changed in every room, bizarre ornaments adorned the shelves, the most bizarre ones sitting above the fireplace amongst pictures of the current family members that had lived in the house.

"Hey 'Phee" Squid shouted as he looked to the oldest painting of the original house owners. Ophelia walked over to join him by the painting hiding behind the open double doors.

"Is it just me or does he look familiar to you?" Squid asked as he nodded to the old portrait showing the first family that lived in the house.

"He looks a lot like... Sophia! Come and look at this!" she shouted over to the teen, but she got no answer. Ophelia turned to look at Sophia, but she paused as her eyes saw the same resemblance in another painting. Her eyes worked their way around the room, watching the resemblance slowly fade away until it came to Sophia. The eyes were the only thing that remained constant through the paintings, the pale blue with green spirals.

Sophia shook her head as if to clear her thoughts, avoiding looking at the paintings as she walked out of the room. Joey looked to Ophelia, who shrugged in explanation, before they all followed Sophia up the stairs so they didn't get lost in the huge house.

"Watch out down there! Falling objects!" Sophia shouted the warning as a box fell out of the attic as she opened the door and lowered the ladder. Ophelia jumped out of the way as the box dropped down the stairs, but Banjo wasn't so lucky and it knocked him flat on his face.

He got back on his feet and stepped over the now still box and continued to climb the stairs after the others. Everyone stopped dead and stared at the ladder to the overflowing attic.

"You lot always had a sense of style didn't you?" Ophelia asked, stroking the elegant wooden ladders as Sophia nodded.

"They're perfectly stable, even though they were built by the original house owners, the first Midnights." she told them as she began to climb into the stuffy attic.

"What are we looking for exactly?" Banjo asked several hours later. They had been sifting through the junk collected over the ages, taking interesting boxes down the ladder for later examination.

"A tube about the width of a jigsaw roll with a lid on both ends. It will have the family tree in on a roll of paper." Sophia answered

"And you think we'll find it here?" Joey questioned rather dubiously, sneezing as she opened a box and created a dust cloud.

"I saw it up here once and by the looks of it no-one's been up here since. So I has to be here some-"

"Found it!" Ophelia shouted, interrupting Sophia. Sophia turned to look at Sherlock's niece to see her holding up a large cardboard tube with a plastic stopper in each end, so Sophia made her way through the piles of junk towards Ophelia.

Ophelia handed the tube over to Sophia and tried to dig her way out of the cardboard boxes that had fallen in around her. Sophia pulled the plastic stopper out of the tube and looked at the paper rolled inside, before she put the stopper in again and started pulling the boxes away around Ophelia.

"Oops." Squid muttered as he pulled a box away and something flew out. The unknown object flew through the air and hit a nearby stack of boxes, which toppled into the next stack. This domino effect continued until the boxes knocked off the top of the spare wardrobe by the trapdoor to the lower floors, forcing the protecting piece of wood to close.

"Looks like we'll have to dig our way out." Ophelia muttered, jumping over the contents of a box that had spread in front of her. Sophia sighed and began picking up the boxes and stuffing random items in them so it would all fit again.

"Oooh, sparkles." Joey muttered, inspecting a broach that had fallen out of the box full of wrapped up jewellery.

"Put everything back in that box and keep it nearby. We can take that one downstairs with us Joey." Sophia told her and Joey quickly wrapped the broach up in tissue paper and placed it back in the box. The small girl closed the box and placed it nearby, walking over to clear the boxes off the top of the small trapdoor. Sophia placed the cardboard tube containing the family tree on top of the jewellery box and went to help Ophelia putting boxes back on top of the wardrobe.

This continued for about twenty minutes until the trapdoor was clear, but there still wasn't enough room to prop it open.

"Maybe we could put some boxes inside the wardrobe until we can get the door open." Squid suggested and Ophelia shrugged.

"It's worth a shot." she replied as she pulled the door open slightly, only to slam it shut again.

"What is it Phee?" Sophia questioned the purple haired girl, but Ophelia pushed her away as she went to open the wardrobe.

"You don't want to see." Ophelia told her and Sophia sighed impatiently, her frown showing her confusion.

"I've worked with your uncle for almost four years on some of the most gruesome murders in London. Let me see!" Sophia argued as she tried to pull the door open. There was a few minutes struggling before Sophia finally managed to pull the door open, revealing what Ophelia had been trying to hide.

The mummified remains hidden in the wardrobe would have shocked any normal person, but Sophia had never been normal by anyone's standards, so she stood frozen at the sight. She observed everything about the body, letting the door close again as she saw the answer to so many of her questions over the years, a wedding band she hadn't seen for over six years, her mother's.

Sophia shook her head quickly to remove the image from her head and pushed Ophelia's hand from her shoulder.

"I've seen worse" she muttered to the purple-haired teen as she began to move boxes again. Soon the trapdoor could be opened and Sophia grabbed the cardboard tube with the family tree and climbed down the ladder again.

Ophelia watched her go before she looked to her friends around her.

"What's in there Phee?" Banjo asked, so she let the wardrobe fall open again and showed them the mummified body. They all stared at it in shock for a moment, silence descending over them.

"Is that a wedding ring?" Joey asked, seeing the diamond and sapphire ring on the corpse's ring finger. Ophelia nodded and closed the door again, walking past her friends to pick up the box of jewellery and climb down the ladder in search of Sophia.

The teen in question was carrying the boxes down the stairs that they had wanted to examine further but not had the room to do so in the attic, the family tree was balanced on the top of them and held still under Sophia's chin. Ophelia grabbed another box and joined Sophia, walking alongside her down the stairs.

"Stop worrying Phee, I'm fine." Sophia told her friend, but her tone implied otherwise, only in a way Ophelia or Baker Street's occupants would have picked up.

"Liar" was all Ophelia said as she put the boxes down in the huge living room beside everyone's stuff, patting Sophia on the shoulder as she walked past her and back up the stairs. Sophia ignored it, not willing to admit that several years of questions had just been answered and it tore her apart how.

She placed the boxes down and walked back up the stairs, walking past the ladder up to the attic and Joey's concerned gaze, right down the corridor to her mother's room.

Sophia's parents hadn't shared a room since she was eight, but at the time she hadn't been given a straight answer as to why. She remembered the only answer that her father had given her when she'd asked a year later.

"You need to be the only one." he'd told her, but it hadn't made any sense until now. She had understood that it was because they wanted her to be the only child, but only understanding if the riddle had given her the real meaning behind the simple sentence.

She had to be the only one to be the answer to that riddle, and the only one who could access the 'Midnight Fortune' which Mycroft and Sherlock had explained was only available to an only child of the Midnight family for some reason.

She came out of her thoughts and gently nudged the door open with her foot, coughing as a cloud of dust rose from the carpet and filled the air. She wafted the dust away and walked into the room, ignoring the several inches of dust coating every surface as she looked around the room using the light from the doorway.

Suddenly the light from the doorway was gone and Sophia turned to find the irregulars staring at her, somewhere between sympathetic and confused.

Sophia walked towards the door and they parted to let her through, Ophelia breaking off to follow her while everyone looked back to the room, looking away from the pair further down the corridor but listening to the conversation they were having.

"You don't have to bottle it up you know. You can talk to me" Ophelia said to Sophia, but Sophia just shook her head.

"I do Ophelia, because if I don't I fall apart." Sophia brushed Ophelia's hand off her shoulder and walked down the stairs again. Ophelia got the hint this time and left Sophia alone, pulling her phone out and calling her uncle.

Back in London, Sherlock looked away from Eve's computer to grab his phone, putting it on speaker.

"Did you find it?" he asked before his niece had even said anything.

"Hello to you too uncle Sherlock." she replied sarcastically. Eve and John chuckled as Sherlock rolled his eyes.

"Did you find it?" he repeated.

"Yes, but before you ask we haven't had a chance to look at it yet."

"Why?" Eve looked up from her laptop for her moment to ask, but then returned her attention to the computer and started to type again.

"Because everything up in the attic meant we couldn't look up there and on the way our we out found a little surprise."

"Surprise?" John asked with raised eyebrows. Ophelia paused for a moment before she answered and John could picture her trying to word it.

"You've heard of the phrase 'Skeletons in the closet' haven't you?" Ophelia replied.

"Yeah, but what does that have to do wi..." Sherlock tailed off and Eve stopped typing and looked to him. As if she sensed the confusion in London, Ophelia answered her uncle's unfinished question.

"We found a body in a wardrobe hidden away in the attic of the house." she told them. Silence descended over the occupants of 221B and Ophelia continued. "Sophia saw it and now she won't talk to me, or anyone else for that matter. Instead she went to an old room and stared into space."

"Don't try and talk to her about it, avoid the subject totally. You won't like the result otherwise." Eve muttered as she turned back to her computer.

"Any other advice?" Ophelia asked.

"Take her mind off it, open that family tree and take a look, we'll send Lestrade to meet you at the house and tell Mycroft." Sherlock told her before he ended the call. He placed his phone on the table by Eve's shutting down laptop and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes as he began to think.

He didn't realise that Eve was lying on the sofa like he usually does, also thinking, and John had walked into the kitchen to make some tea. His eyes snapped open and he pointed at Eve, but Eve ignored him so he pointed at John, who was just walking back into the room.

"What?" the ex-army doctor asked, but Sherlock was busy texting Ophelia.

'Anything distinguishing about the body? Any wedding rings?'  
>S.H<p>

"Find that picture you were talking about earlier" he told John without even looking to him.

John nodded and walked down to 221C, grabbing the picture from Sophia's bedroom wall and walking back up to Sherlock, handing it over.

Sherlock took the photograph and studied it, pausing as he saw the ring Ophelia had described in the text he'd just received. He put the photo on the arm of the chair and sent a reply.

'Definitely avoid the subject. The body you found is Sophia's mother and she probably already knows that.'  
>S.H<p>

A few seconds later he got a reply.

'Thanks for the warning, it explains a few things.'  
>O.H<p>

"Are you going to explain it to everyone else?" Eve questioned, having heard the phone keys tapping. She sat up and looked directly at Sherlock, who just handed her the picture.

"You think the body they found is Andrea?" she ventured.

"Andrea? Sophia's mother?" John questioned as he handed Sherlock some tea. The consulting detective nodded and John took a seat again.

"Oh God, she's going to fall apart." Eve dropped her head into her hands as John said it, but then reached for her phone.

In the living room of Midnight house, Sophia ignored her phone as Eve's ringtone sounded, too focused on the family tree unrolled in front of her. It ran half the length of the room and there were very few sections of cream paper that werent written on, leaving Sophia feeling a little overwhelmed as she read the names and side notes.

She started from the bottom and worked up until she found the first family, her hand pausing over the old paper as she read the name of the first man in the Midnight family. She looked up to the portrait of that family behind the doors and noticed the resemblance that Ophelia had noticed earlier.

Her eyes went wide as the realisation hit her and before she knew it her feet were moving, running through the old house. She pushed the back door open and ran out, letting it slam shut behind her.

Ophelia looked away from the box full of jewellery as she heard the back door slam, wandering away to investigate. She got to the slightly open back door in time to see Sophia disappear into the leaves of the tree in the back garden, but instead of trying to follow, Ophelia went to look at the family tree to see what had upset her so much.

A few minutes later Ophelia was staring in shock at the name at the top of the family tree, trying to convince herself that she was actually seeing it. She read the rest of the notes around the name and it made sense to her, but she couldn't actually believe it.

Ophelia rolled the family tree up and placed it carefully back in the tube, standing it by the pile of boxes left to be sorted later, before she ran out to the back garden to find Sophia.

Sophia hugged her knees as she sat on the thickest branch of the tree, perfectly stable due to practice, and let her tears fall. They soaked the thin fabric of her purple leggings but she didn't care any more, she had more important things to worry about.

Like how her life was collapsing around her.

"Will you stop crying and talk to me please?" Sophia snapped her head up as she heard the voice, looking around to find Ophelia on the next branch over. She glared at Ophelia and put her head back on her knees. Ophelia sighed as Sophia continued to sob into her knees, ignoring Sherlock's niece completely and beginning to rock on the spot.

Ophelia almost fell off her branch as her phone rang in her pocket. Seeing that it was Eve she answered it.

Sophia stopped crying to listen to the half of the conversation she could hear, holding her hand out for the phone as soon as she heard Eve's name. Ophelia handed the phone over and Sophia held it to her ear, just listening to Eve talking for a while before she interrupted.

"I read it" she said, "and you won't believe what I've found." there was no reply from Eve, but Sophia could tell that she'd just been put on loudspeaker.

"Is everyone there?" Ophelia asked as Sophia put it on loudspeaker and placed it between them. Two voices said 'yes' and a 'hmm' could be heard, so Sophia decided to speak.

"There are portraits around the living room of the past owners of the house, Ophelia actually noticed the resemblance before I did, but they link to the family tree."

"The guys in this family, particularly the first one, look a lot like John." Ophelia interrupted, making the occupants of 221B stare at the phone.

"Go on." Sherlock muttered, so Sophia took over again explaining.

"I traced the family tree back from me to the original family that owned Midnight house, and Sherlock was proved right because the shape of the necklace was doodled by all of the only children in the family, all of them were women. Also, all of them had short lifespans, but that's beside the point." Sophia paused and everyone in London leaned closer to the phone on the coffee table in anticipation.

"The name at the top of the family tree isn't written in full on the painting, the painting plaque just reads 'Jonathan, Maria and Victor Midnight'. Victor is the young boy sitting on his mother's knee, which we learn from the family tree as well as Jonathan's full na-"

"Would you just spit it out!" Eve shouted and Ophelia chuckled. Sophia even managed a small smile as she continued.

"Alright Miss impatient! Jonathan's full name is Jonathan Watson Midnight. The notes around the name say that he took her surname because he wanted to live without being judged for his ancestor's actions concerning the famous Sherlock Holmes."

Everyone in London turned to stare at John, who was currently gawping at the phone on the coffee table.

"I told you so" Sherlock muttered, a smug smirk plastered across his face. Eve poked John experimentally, but she got no reaction and Sherlock frowned.

"It isn't that difficult to see..." Eve tailed off and facepalmed as she realised why it was such a shock to John. She caught Sherlock's phone as he tossed it to her and she immediately began flipping through the photos.

She found the one that she was looking for, Sophia and John standing side by side, and pushed it in front of John's gaze.

"Yeah, it's kinda the reason that we're sitting in a tree." Ophelia explained rather sheepishly, making everyone jump as they'd forgotten that she was here.

"The tree closest to the back of the house?" Eve inquired, nodding as she heard Sophia's "Uh-huh".

"How long ago did the two of you work it out?" John's question was barely audible.

"I worked it out while she was taken a few weeks ago. Eve worked it out after we got her back. An-"

"And we were trying to find an easy way to tell you." Eve interrupted, not trusting Sherlock to go any further.

"And we wanted to make sure we had the proof before we told you" Sherlock finished, glaring at Eve.

"Even I worked it out" Ophelia added. She waved her hand in front of Sophia's face, but Sophia continued to stare at Ophelia's phone distantly, as if she was seeing more.

"How closely related?" Sophia and John asked, both snapping out of their daze. Eve grinned and reached for her computer again as in 'pinged'.

"I thought you closed that down" Sherlock muttered, joining her on the sofa. He soon realised that it hadn't been shutting down, but had been running a program that had been digging into computer files.

"I'll answer your question as soon as I get into Mycroft's personal files on the MI5 database" Eve explained. Sherlock grinned and patted Eve on the head as he watched her hack, an expectant silence descending over 221B and the tree behind Midnight House.

Eve's huge grin and maniacal laughter a few minutes later made John push himself off his seat and look over Eve's shoulder, reading a few paragraphs quickly before sitting back in his armchair. Even Eve's maniacal laughter stopped and Ophelia took her phone back from Sophia.

"Are you guys going to share or not?" Ophelia

"How does siblings sound? Distant siblings, but siblings nevertheless"


End file.
